 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-12-19 20:20
I've played in several pit orchestras, and this past weekend was the tops! We were doing our folk version of the Nutcracker with the Ethnic Dance Theatre, and due to swords breaking all through their rehearsals, the Business Manager procured hard hats for all of us to wear. Additionally, the "snow" used in the snow scene was chemically incompatible with the finish on the accordion and the bellows of the same. I was the only one not playing on that piece so I "got" to hold an umbrella over her instrument the entire piece!
Any other unusual pits out there???
Katrina
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-12-19 22:32
• Being stuck up in catwalks above the theater space, with the various elements of the musical group strewn out over sixty linear feet of catwalk
• Being in a shallow pit that was roofed over with a thrust and with only two very constricted ways out; the only people who could see what was going on was the conductor (whose head protruded through a opera prompter-like hatch) and the pianist (who had both her own monitor and headphones. The pianist, being a church organist normally, ignored the conductor (she was seated so she had her back to him) and just played according to what she heard; the cast omitted a whole chorus from a song and she knew it but none of the rest of us did. Oh, and in a previous production, the pit had been full of barn animals (for a Christmas play) and had not been well cleaned either of the straw or the manure.
• Being in the pit in a production of Threepenny Opera and having Lucy Brown (the (ahem) "girl" in the show, not the Peanuts character) fall on me and a borrowed saxophone below
• Being in the pit in a production of 110° In The Shade, and having the better part of a washtubs' worth of water splashed on me and the others in the back row.
• Being in the pit for a production of Company, with the orchestra located offstage left, and watching as a Hollywood "name" appearing in the production knocked over a Mark VI sax and clarinet on a stand during intermission, turning only to say "Oh!?!?" as she exited the area. (It was one of the lesser quality Mark VIs, and the theater's insurance picked up the tab; the owner made a wall hanging out of the salvage value horn.)
• Being up in the rafters of a building above and behind the stage, with only a TV monitor for the conductor to work from, and the heat from a Midwestern summer radiating down from the tar and metal roof located inches able.
• Nearly getting caught in the passageway between the entry door and the orchestra pit at Kiel Opera House in Saint Louis, just as someone accidentally punched the "up button" for the elevating pit platform. Do not try this with a baritone sax in your hands...
• Being on 130° concrete just after the sun passed from the area (this in an outdoor municipal theater that had a cascade water cooling system to avoid that very problem, but the city was too cheap to turn the water on), and having to wear white dinner jackets and ties the whole while...
• Contracting for a pit once where my drummer had his kit and his arms destroyed in a car wreck, and I had to get a drummer out of the local union hall; she could play "Boom-chick" and "Boom-chick-chick" and little else (and did not read charts), thereby making for a very interesting Overture to Bye Bye Birdie, with its 5/4 and 6/4 time segments
• Being in the pit and engaged in casual conversation (about the local baseball team) by Zero Mostel during the course of the play (Forum); try and come up with something witty under those circumstances.
• Playing in outdoor theaters where the whole production comes to a halt because a passing locomotive is blowing the bejeesus out of its horn as it passes behind the stage.
• Finally, and certainly the worst, having to sight read the lead clarinet/sax book in Forum one night when the Book II player didn't show until late in the second act. I managed to choke out the extended clarinet solos at the start of Free with zero errors, but to this day I don't know how I did it.
Other than those, just a few dozen more, many of which George would censor if they were posted here...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-12-19 22:37
No oxygen starvation due to the pit filling up ith CO2 from the on-stage dry ice machine?
I haven't, but I'm sure it's happened.
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Author: hrvanbeek
Date: 2005-12-19 22:52
Once upon a time I played in the pit for Kiss Me Kate. At some point the throwing of a tantrum and flower pots ensued on stage. Had I not removed myself from my chair at the moment I did, I may have suffered head trauma.  *thinking that hard hat idea would have come in mighty handy*
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Author: Bob A
Date: 2005-12-19 22:54
Terry, a damn fine book struggling to get published. What hopes?
Bob A
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Author: woodwind650
Date: 2005-12-20 02:25
nothing too crazy......but i go through many books playing in the pit. i even managed to read all of the Lord of The Rings during one show. currently reading Sondheim's biography and The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon.
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Author: Aussiegirl
Date: 2005-12-20 04:45
-During the Music Man, our percussionist who was trapped in a corner of the pit behind his timpanis falling ill during a show and having to climb over the entire orchestra to get out in the middle of a song (and still managing to get out before he threw up!)
-During the riot scene at the end of the first act of fiddler on the roof, a glass falling off the stage, hitting a timp and making a fantastic noise.
-Splurge guns going all over the place in Bugsy Malone
And one i've always wanted to do, and just might this year for Seussical...
Ever noticed how many shows have designated spots for the orchestra to tune, warm up etc at the start of an act or piece? Ive never had the nerve to get half the band to play an a and the other half to play a Bb but ive always wanted to....
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-12-20 06:18
The show was Hello Dolly.
My clarinet was on its stand, in a pit 8' below the stage.
The clumsy waiter ran onto stage, and deliberately slipped and fell on the stage, as per character and script.
But his velocity was too much for the slipperiness of the stage, and he landed, horizontal. missing my clarinet by millimetres.
If he had landed ON it, he would have been impaled! Poor clarinet!
As it happened, he picked himself up got back on stage, took a bow to much applause, and continued as if nothing had happened.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-12-20 06:28
A particularly excitable and obstreperous young player was on clarinet and bass clarinet beside me. He was regularly playing tricks on others.
During the longer breaks when he was not playing the bass, I was servicing it, returning it to going order in plenty time for when it was next needed.
So one night, In my pocket I took along a few old surplus keys from the workshop.
Before an exposed bass 'solo',I did more servicing as usual, but just before the solo (where I also played flute), I sneaked out those extra keys, put on a panic performance with them, handed back the bass and the surplus keys on his lap, and picked up my flute ready to play.
LOL! Did HE 'wet' himself. Sweet revenge.
I suppose many friends here have not seen that side of me. :-)
Post Edited (2006-02-18 21:25)
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-12-20 13:37
Regarding the CO2 issue, I've not experienced that but I've been dosed up with theatrical "fog" smoke on several occasions. I understand that the 802 crowd now has the union watching out for that, but out in the provinces we were not lucky oh so long ago.
Now, if you want stories of clarinet players who thought they could play saxophone caught in the act of seizing up when they reached a difficult portion that they could not hack...well, there's a few stories along those lines as well.
• There's also the blown costume change in a production of Hello, Dolly! that left me (on bass clarinet), the string bass, the trap set and the piano playing the same one bar vamp for about three minutes ("brummmp, bump!", over and over and over and over), waiting for a cast member to get on stage to start the dance contest during the Harmonia Gardens scene. I tried to keep count after the first twenty times or so, but lost it later on. The conductor bought us the four of us a drink after that night's show.
• There's also the great "clarinet race" sections in the "railroad music" scene changes in Annie. Since there's nothing happening onstage at the time, the tempo doesn't matter, so the four clarinet players end up trying to force the tempo as fast as they can while still playing the notes right.
All in all, I enjoy playing shows more than just about anything else musical. Difficult music for the most part, playing with vocalists (a challenge that I enjoy; my musical group's book is about seventy percent vocals, much higher than most "instrumental" based groups), casual (for the most part) working conditions, and the pay is halfway decent, even out in the sticks. Down here, a private school will pay as much as $400.00 for pit work (two to four shows), and the quality of what's provided is indicative of that.
The big time stuff is tied up with the locals (I'm a relatively new transplant here), so I don't do as much commercial as I did up north. But the music is still the same. Plus, at the college and school level you get to work with "young" folks, passing on the traditions and skills to the future.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: FrankM
Date: 2005-12-20 14:10
I was doing "Chicago" once and we were on stage on a raised platform....one of the actresses walked by and her dress snagged my buddy's soprano sax....she was annoyed at having her progress impeded and grabbed her skirt and yanked....the soprano became airborn.....and was caught in midair by another reed player ! No damage, though my buddy needed to change his underwear when he got home. I never leave the pit for breaks...I just sit there and guard my horns !
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2005-12-20 15:31
A while back I filled in for a friend on one performance of a locally written play by an amateur theater group. The band was on a raised platform stage left in back surrounded by a black gauze curtain. At various times during the production, they would light up the band which would show through the curtain for dramatic effect or at least that’s what I was told since I couldn't make heads or tails of the play. It reminded me of Waiting for Godot on Acid.
Anyway during the play’s final show the band platform collapsed on one end and we slid out onto the stage, chairs, music, instruments and all. The conductor fell backwards and grabbed the curtain and pulled both it and the stand holding it down. As far as I know, no instruments or instrumentalists were damaged although it did stop the show for about 15 minutes while repairs were made.
The play was so strange to begin with that I’m not sure if the audience was even aware that this wasn’t a normal part of the show.
Best
Rick
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-12-20 21:43
I've had similar problems with risers provided for my use in the past that don't have a curb on the rear edge. The chairs slide about, and pretty soon it's falling over backwards time with a bass clarinet heading for your face.
I've even gone so far as to stipulate in my group's contract that a curb be provided for the rear set of risers (the front ones have the risers behind them to stop the chair legs from sliding). The last job we did with risers had a screwed on hardwood curb installed; somebody was reading the fine print on that one.
And, speaking of performances of Chicago, we picked one up a year ago while on vacation in Pensacola. The production values were consistent with the norms overall (i.e., very Fosse-like, and a cast full of strong dancers if not stellar vocalists), excepting only one glaring detail:
In the middle of the stage was the obligatory set of tiers with the pit orchestra (all two string players and big band of it, including the wimpiest baritone sax player on earth) in full view as is customary. In front of the group was perched the vocal music director of a local college, apparently serving a dual role as musical director and pit conductor. And, while everyone else was dressed in the traditional Fosse-inspired black on black shirts and pants, Madame Conductor was decked out in a very flattering off the shoulder black evening gown, complete with sparkling crystals. If somewhat out of place, I have to admit that she looked very good, functioning almost as a wedding cake-like center of attention throughout the entire show.
The only other faux pas that I've ever seen along these lines was a college production of Threepenny Opera where they were going to dispatch Macheath in an electric chair, yet they still left in the scene where the police are testing the trap (on a hangman's gallows) before the big finish.
Some theatrical types need to get out a bit more...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: liam_hockley
Date: 2005-12-20 23:31
I Played South Pacific in a tent with a leak above the pit...
In the middle of the show we had to shuffle the whole band around so that our music would'nt get wet, but all the same my left sleeve was soaked by the end...
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Author: BassClarinetGirl
Date: 2005-12-21 03:45
I was in the pit orchestra playing tenor saxophone for my high schools production of Grease this year. The actual high-schoolers in the pit were the other tenor saxophone player and the trap set player. The piano part was traded off between two professional pianists. My high school band/chior director was both musical director and pit director. The guitar parts were covered by the athletics director/dean of my school, the principal of the elementry school, and the science teacher in the middle school. These three guitarists were COMPLETELY ADHD prone!!!! We (the high schoolers with rather impressive attention spans, compared to the adults) got rather fed up with them when they would enthusiastically begin to play the "I walk the line" song whenever the pit wasn't playing- including when actors were on the stage trying to act. Thankfully, however, the performances were put on without a hitch, except for the fact that we ended up playing one scene change about 20 too many times. Luckily, it was a fairly interesting one, so it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened.
It was an amazing experience none the less. I did discover that I LOVE being in the pit, and I also fell in love with theatre, which inspired me to audition for one act play, which I got a part in!
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Author: clarinetdave
Date: 2006-02-18 16:30
I played in the Cape Town production of Phantom of the Opera, 8 shows a week for three months. Pretty soon i had the idea to play scrabble to help while away the time. By the end of the run we could finish one game in each half!
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Author: bob49t
Date: 2006-02-19 09:31
In a week's run of "Carousel" - 2 problems engendered by an over jealous producer.
1) onstage "fire eater" (with fire service standing by). Apart from huge heat bursts quite close to the single reeds, our heads and books were sprayed by the unused petrol droplets !
2) pit filled with stage fog and rendered MD invisible.
Made for an exciting week.
Before taking the contract we now check who's producing the show.
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2006-02-19 14:05
In a performance of Die Walkure at Denver's Red Rocks Ampitheatre some years ago the "magic fire" was provided by the Army's Rocky Mountain Arsonel (now thankfully a wildlife refuge). They miscalculated the force of their "magic" and the entire pit was showered with sparks and embers! Luckily (it was a chilly night) I had my trench coat with me and I covered myself with it--no one seems to have suffered any serious injury. The music stopped while the conductor, Saul Caston, assessed the damage; then we resumed putting Brunhilde to sleep in a fireless ring of fire.
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Author: diz
Date: 2006-02-20 01:20
I remember playing in the pit for Tosca at Rockdale Opera. One of the sets fell over, a rather large cardboard column painted to look like marble, it hit the 1st bassoonist on the head and his reed cut his soft palate. The guy was ok but it was extremely dangerous. We went on strike after that and made the director change the set.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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